One step closer to the edge
by aquaorion
Summary: Hermione is forced to go home to a life that no one really wishes for, but yet she has tomlive another day to see the good that will come out of life. Fed up and sick of the way that she is treated, she runs away to face her mutial enemy, who cares for he


The Broken Part of Me

hey everyone! this is my 7th fic. Anyways the title is from a Linkin Park song" One step Closer" and the chapter title" Its Like I'm paraniod looking over my back" is too from a LP song" Papercut. If you havent figured it out now I am a BIG **LINKIN PARK FAN and i am a lpu member.** oh if you look at the chapter title i know i spelled looking wrong. i had to in order to fit it. Oh the story takes placeright before and during their 7th year.Anyways enjoy. AquaOrion

"GET BACK HERE, NOW YOU LILTTLE WHORE" a angry man yelled as a young woman ran threw the halls of her home. For Hermione this was her life. This was normal. The past six years she came home to this, this creature that showed no emotion what so ever. When people would come over, most likely her "fathers" friends. They always loved to be here but little did they knew what happened when the door were closed and the lights were dim.

"Come on just a few more feet. Just to your room. OH NO!" the girl was pushed to the wood floor by a forceful push.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH. HOW DARE YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME, HERMIONE ANN GRANGER!"

The man yelled a battle cry as he pinned her against the cold, wood floor. She shuttered at the sight of the rising hand. She closed her eyes preparing her self for the blow, it was like looking at the same thing, and it never was the same, always different.

SLAP. There was a bright red mark on Hermione's already bruised face.

She struggled to be free form his hateful grasp. She was small and feeble. Her bones surely would break at the slightest uncontrolled movement by this man who haunted her dreams and waking life. She couldn't look this man in his eyes anymore. They were so full of anger, jealousy and pain. She had known this man all her life and he was always so gentle and kind. His eyes once were so warm and peaceful. She could remember the first time that she had ever lost a tooth. Her father was happy, laughing when she smiled her toothy, innocent smile. He wrapped his big bear like arms around his only child. She felt so safe, comforted and most of all she felt that all the love was with her. That was something that she hadn't felt in a long time, love. She remembered when it all started, since that day her life had gone downhill. That fateful day when she got the letter from Hogwarts. She was happy, running to her father she stopped and held out the letter with a proud smile on her face. She looked in those eyes, all the love was gone, and it was just a cold, hollow person left.

She knew what was going to happen. The memories form the past came flooding back in that one instant. Hermione's eyes tear stricken eyes darted around the hall to look for anything to help her get away. Searching she found a stray nail on the floor. She clasped her hand over it. When her "father", if he could have such a honor to be titled that, was a mere foot behind her she picked up the nail and jabbed it into the flesh of his calf with all the strength that she had in that famished body of hers. He howled in pain has he looked at the small stream of blood that ran down his leg and pooled around his foot. That gave Hermione, who was just barely able to breath, had just enough time to crawl into her room and shut and lock the door. She ran to the other side of her room as she crouched in the corner. With in seconds of her escape from the hall she heard the heavy pounding on the splitting door. With each bang of his fist she saw the pieces fly onto her floor. The door was breaking at a rapid rate. She was running out of the little hope she had as well as options.

"I need to get out of here." That was her first thought that came racing through her mind. Just as quickly a second on came. The young brown-haired witch's fight or flight action came kicking in. Just a quickly a second thought came to her brain.

"NO. You can't what if he finds you." She shuddered at the thought of her being caught. Her impulse was to get out and quickly. She saw her fathers hand threw a new hole that had just been made.  
She jumped up ran to the window and opened it. She looked to the ground. It was a good ten foot drop to the ground. She heard the clicking on the door. There was no thought threw her head as she jumped out the window and she squeezed herself between the bushes and the brickwork of the house. She whimpered slightly as she got up and felt the sharp, shooting pain in her ankle. She heard her fathers merciless yell from outside. She ran to an abandoned ally she could here the yelling a block away, she heard the almost silent footsteps and froze. She kept her head buried in her knees. Her breathing became unsteady and half breathes. She heard yelling become closer though a man, it wasn't her father. It was a different man. She thought she heard the sound of an almost silent scream but then she focused on the footsteps getting closer. The foot steps stopped right before her. She stopped breathing, hoping that they would ignore her and pass by. She had no luck. The person knelt by her and tapped her lightly. She didn't move, to freighted and scared that this person would be her "father".

"NO! He couldn't have found me. No way, he was just in my room." The person tucked her wild hair behind her ear to revile her bruised, bloody face. Her eyes were closed so tightly she felt pain when she tried to open them again.

She heard the person let a small almost inaudible gasp. She felt a smooth hand move around the throbbing mark on her pale face. A thumb moved its way over the now light blue mark on her cheek. She leaned onto the hand as though this person would give back the hope and faith that she so desperately needed. The fingers slowly made their way to the cut below her eye and ever so carefully and lightly they stroked the mark. When she felt the hand disappear she knew her guardian angel was still there because she could feel the presence. Timidly and cautiously, almost like she was afraid to look at this angel, she lightly opened her eyes. To look into the eyes of the person who saw her weakness, her worst, and her degraded despair. She opened her eyes; her blurry vision deceived her as she saw a pale young man. When her vision became clearer she saw the familiar soft ,frosted blonde hair she meets him in his eyes. Those bright blue eyes that looked like an ice blue lake had been placed in his eyes.

"Draco?" She whispered.

"Hermione? What happened?" He asked rather softly.  
Hermione started to cry uncontrollably. Not just that it was her enemy that had found her but she got the sense that he was in a similar place in life, he was just afraid like she was but he didn't show it. He masked it with pride but in his beautiful eyes if you looked far you saw the pain and sorrow. Her fragile body was shaking. Draco picked her up and carried her to the hotel that he could apperate from. When they were inside a safe room Draco aperated to the leaky cauldron. He took her up to the room that he was currently staying in. He took her over to the chair and placed her down. He once again kneeled down and put a finger under Hermione's chin. He laughed slightly because she was so warn out that she was sleeping.

"Only you, Hermione, only you."

He went down to the main room of the Leaky Cauldron and ordered some food so that Hermione could get some much deserved sleep.

Meanwhile up in the room, Hermione had woken up. She was alarmed and frightened. She had no clue where she was. She heard the door open and she ran to hide under the bed. She heard the quickening foot steps and she looked out from under the bed to see the shoes of her caretaker.

"Hermione? Where are you?" the he asked with a slightly alarming voice.

She crawled out from under the bed. She sat at the end of the bed near the corner. She heard the footsteps come her way. She looked up to see Draco Malfoy extending a hand to help her up. Carefully she took it.  
She walked over the chair by the window. Draco walked over to her and handed her what looked like a ham sandwich. She nibbled it a little. She curled her self in the chair looking at her reflection on the mirror. She saw a broken girl. Her heart was broken and no amount of glue could fix it. Her physical appearance wasn't much better. Looking at the distraught face in the cracked glass she saw too many bruises for something to just have been an accident. She ran her finger over the knife slash on her left cheek. The cut still wasn't healed though she got it over a month ago. As she ran her finger over the cut she felt the blood trickle down her cheek. Quickly she moved her hand in front of her eyes looking at the red blood. It was thick and running down her finger. She hated the sight of blood though, now she could handle it. Moving a finger to a different part of her face she stopped at the once stinging mark on her face. She looked at the blue and purple marks under her eyes. She wrapped her arms in her big bright blue sweatshirt. She didn't want to admit that her life wasn't perfect. She wasn't ready to admit that there were imperfections with her and her family. She had tried so hard to cover that all up and hide it while she was at school. Now Draco Malfoy knew. Not even Harry or Ron knew what her life was like. She was almost afraid to tell them thinking of what they might say or do to her. She broke down once again feeling her chest rise and fall heavily.

"Harry and Ron, My two best friends in the world but yet I don't have the heart to tell them what really goes on. All those moments at school were I am trying to make my self liked it never works. My Life what am I going to do now. I have school in three weeks and after that I am done with Hogwarts. Surely they won't let me stay there till I grow old and die. I could get a job and have a place of my own."

Being alone wasn't to reassuring either. She missed the love that was so abruptly taken form her life. Surely she knew that this wasn't going to be easy. She looked past her physical reflection to see her broken hearts memories. flashback  
She was only eleven when it all started. She was so excited that she was going to a school to be a witch. She was running threw that house. That's when she came to a stop. Her mother, in the hall mindlessly walking to the front door carrying a bag behind her.

"Mommy, where are you going?" The bright eyed girl asked. She tapped into her mother's sense of anger and sadness.

"Honey, I'm going away for a while." Ann bent down and hugged her young child. She left her daughters embrace fixed her clothing and walked straight out the door never once looking back.  
That was when it had all started. She had never seen her mother since then or even heard from her.  
Draco watched Hermione curl up and go into her own world, an unsafe world. He walked over to her and gently shook her. She snapped out of the dream like state and looked at him as though for the first time.

"Hermione, what's wrong?"


End file.
